While I sat in my Boston home, warm, dry and comfortable, Hurricane Sandy trashed my home state of New Jersey. Four days after the storm, my relatives are still without power, friends have lost homes, and entire towns lie underwater. The achingly beautiful coast of New Jersey is a disaster. Families who have lived there for generations have lost their homes, all their possessions, their mementos of childhood.

Seaside Heights, Funtown Pier after Hurricane Sandy

I am in no way belittling the horrible damage from the hurricane in New York City. The national media, however, is almost exclusively focused on the impact of the storm there, and only peripheral attention is being granted to the normal people and humble homes of New Jersey seaside towns.

I had no idea of what happened there until I saw a Facebook post from a high school friend. I Googled “jersey shore hurricane impact” and sadly, my first page of search results had 1 legitimate link to news, and the rest were what the cast of the aforementioned TV fodder thought of the storm.

If you are in the New Jersey area and would like to do more, the state has set up a volunteer emergency response hotline: 1-800-JERSEY-7. Also check listings from specific agencies at Volunteer New Jersey. Contact your local food banks to see what supplies they need — here’s a list from Feeding America.

We were so fortunate in the Northeast, an area I always thought was known for getting the worst of everything. It’s November 1st, and the holidays are coming up fast. My heart aches for my Jersey Shore, and for all the proud, feisty, good people in my home state.